Sectional seating shopping options, with motion featured, was right at the top of RC Willey’s home page the last week in April, followed by chairs and recliners, then sofas.
HIGH POINT — Reclining furniture’s continued advancements in style and function have taken retailers’ promotional efforts for recliners, sofas and sectionals that move in new directions, not only regarding timing but also the message they convey to consumers.
Fathers Day, just around the corner, and end-of-year holidays were longtime staples for touting recliners on retail floors. Such promotions still exist, but with reclining function extending into larger pieces accommodating family or guests along with increased style appeal in the category, motion is a year-round tool now for driving traffic.
Better cover choices, cleaner frames have extended appeal beyond comfort alone, and combined with attention-getting functional bells and whistles, offer RSAs an opportunity to sell-up and tailor motion goods to a broad range of consumer preferences across price points.
A pandemic-inspired focus on comfort in the home has only fueled the category’s fire of late, and reclining furniture continues to grow its share of retail sales and retailers’ advertising dollars.
In light of all that, Furniture Today reached out to experts in furniture retail advertising and operations to get their take on developments in the promotion of recliners and other motion goods.
Changing attitudes
Even before the pandemic started, R&A Marketing President and CEO Kyle Doran saw trends among his predominantly independent retail clientele of taking a much broader approach to promoting motion and recliners.
“We’ve been moving away from the traditional Father’s Day focus. Fashion brands have made motion furniture a lot more sexy with more appeal to female customers,” Doran said, noting sleeker styles and cover options that appeal to a broader audience beyond someone outfitting their man-cave. “We no longer live in houses with so many rooms, so (promoting motion) has shifted more to sectionals and sofas where more people can binge watch Netflix or watch the game.”
Knorr Marketing CEO Doug Knorr has been working with retailers from independents to majors, from mid-price to very high end on telling their story to consumers, for more than 40 years. Especially in the past couple of years, he’s seen consumer attitudes toward the category and the way retailers promote recliners and motion seating change.
“In the early ‘80s, when I first opened my marketing firm with a focus on home furnishings, every June There would be a big Fathers’ Day recliner promotion,” Knorr said. “Some companies always offered ‘buy one get one free.’ This was also true for the Christmas holiday season.”
Today, though, such programs are only a part of promotional offers in June and November. “Reclining furniture is about comfort, and it is now mainstream 12 months a year” across all price points, he added. “Reclining Furniture is a part of almost every home furnishing retailer’s advertising every month. … It’s getting into rooms and lifestyles that at one time, with all the ‘Bubba’ recliners, never would have accepted it.”
John Egger, CEO of retail operations, management and marketing consultancy Profitability Consulting Group, agreed that promoting motion and recliners is a year-round prospect for PCG’s clients.
“With our clients, their motion is around 20% of their inventory and showroom display,” he said. “People are living more casually, more comfortably, and that’s driving sales all year.”
‘Recliners’ vs. ‘Motion’
How do retailers approach motion sofas/loveseats versus recliners when it comes to promotion? Both segments offer similar function, but their differences impact how they’re advertised.
While most retailers will include motion sofas, loveseats, sectionals along with recliners, Knorr noted that his clients usually dedicate a separate section to recliners.
“Recliners like to show a variety of style and price points from wall and rocker recliners to big man recliners, as well as heat-and-massage and lift chair recliners,” he said.
Whether recliners or sofas, motion furniture advertising has to match the retailers brand position and target audience.
“For example, a medium priced retailer will offer looks and price points that meet their targeted consumer, usually a first generation or lower income household,” Knorr said. “High-end retailers will have a totally different look and feel, and their advertising and merchandising will include higher price points.”
Doran at R&A believes recliners’ promotional role has evolved as sectionals and such have added motion function.
“I think the recliner has turned into more of a pop of color, if not an accent at least something different from the sofa, love or sectional motion piece,” R&A Marketing’s Doran said. “Our clients have had a lot of success from an advertising perspective selling sofas and sectionals separately from recliners.
“When you show everything in one shot, it can get too crowded,” he continued. “You need room in the ad to show the pricing and the functional features available.”
In addition, shoppers have different motivations when it comes to recliners vs. other motion pieces. The latter are more of a lifestyle decision, while the recliner tends to involve a quicker purchase decision.
“Someone looking for a sofa or a loveseat is likely redoing a room or creating a new sense of style,” Doran said, noting that a recliner tends to be a more immediate need. “They might like their old recliner, but it might have broken down or they want to move from manual to power.”
While PCG’s clients do separate promotion of those goods, a mixed approach has been a winner for many.
“Some keep their recliners and motion very close together, and the combination of the two is powerful,” Egger said. “When we measure inventory and sales, we do separate recliners from the other motion pieces like sectionals and sofas.”
Recliners, Egger noted, are a “personal space,” while a sectional or sofa accommodates up to several people at once, but the proliferation of function and gadgets once found only in recliners have blurred the lines.
“It’s all such an expanding category, and it’s all geared toward new, acceptable styles that a woman will have in the home,” Egger said. “And every year, comfort becomes a bigger issue motivating consumers.”
A customized approach
What’s different today compared with a couple of years ago about how retailers promote recliners and motion, and what drives such changes?
The pandemic got a lot of PCG’s client retailers who hadn’t been as active in the category promoting reclining furniture more heavily, and expanding their selections of chairs, sofas, loveseats and sectionals. Egger believes that was a matter of accommodating consumers eager to buy anything available.
“During the pandemic, people were struggling for inventory, and a lot of retailers who weren’t big on motion began promoting it more,” he said. Upon brick-and-mortar reopening last year, “it seemed a lot of motion was available then” compared with other categories.
“The fact they could get the product on the floor helped spur that,” Egger added.
Comfort, value and durability are constant expectations among consumers shopping reclining furniture, Knorr said, whether they’re 25 or 75, middle or high income, but those expectations translate differently among demographics.
“You will market to each of those demographics differently,” Knorr said. “I’m 71, and I look at comfort differently than I did at 31. If it’s someone 25- to 44-years-old, they might look at more of an entry level product, but they still want style to go with price. The next generation up is looking for even greater comfort and more style.
“At 55-plus, that target can buy anything they want for the most part,” he continued. “They’ll seek better, more innovative comfort. We see this with mattresses, where you see a lot of adjustable bases for this (demographic). With motion, they’re looking at the enhanced function like back massage and zero-gravity positioning.”
With consumers realizing it often takes more time than usual to receive their purchases, smart independents are using that as an opportunity to build tickets through taking more time to sell the greater customization available in motion and recliners these days, according to Doran at R&A.
“We have focused with our clients on and are seeing success approaching motion from a customization perspective, talking about the mechanisms, the cushion options, the components like USB or cupholders,” he said. “And we’ve seen motion increase as a percentage of sales. Due to stocking issues and the fact it takes more time to get there does create more opportunity to work more on the order and build the ticket.”
May 17, 2021 at 05:28PM
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Motion promotion: Evolving function, styles impact how, when retailers promote the category - Furniture Today
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